Ole Miss is in for a bit of an awkward reunion when Hugh Freeze returns to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for the first time since November 2016 — just a few months prior to him resigning in disgrace as the program imploded and endured a 4-year stretch of irrelevance.

But once the opening kick is booted into the air, all that will fade into irrelevance, as the Rebels have a fairly important task at hand. Liberty doesn’t have the athletes to beat Ole Miss, but it does have a quarterback in Malik Willis, who is good enough to make the Rebels sweat if they do not come out of the gates sharp and ready to play. Willis is a true dual-threat quarterback with a good arm, good vision and a knack for elevating the inferior talent around him. There’s a reason he has climbed into the discussion as a first-round draft pick in April, and the last thing the Rebels need is to give him a chance to prove it with the game on the line.

Saturday can go 1 of 2 ways for Ole Miss. The Rebels can put the inferior Flames away early, rest a banged-up roster and prepare for a crucial 3-game stretch to the end the year. Or, they can come out lethargic and find themselves in a bit of a rock fight for 3 quarters or more, leaving the game worse for wear. Both scenarios would have a significant effect on the final 3 games of the year.

To say Ole Miss is banged up on offense would be putting it mildly. The Rebels’ top 3 receivers are injured, Matt Corral re-aggravated his left ankle injury in the loss to Auburn last week, and Ben Brown is out for the year on an offensive line that is dealing with a litany of other minor ailments.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, having this many injuries on one side of the ball,” coach Lane Kiffin said. “It does present a good challenge for us in game planning and calling plays during games.”

Your guess is as good as anyone’s with regard to whether receivers Dontario Drummond and Braylon Sanders will play. Jonathan Mingo hasn’t played in more than a month, and his chances of returning this year seem pretty slim. Sanders suited up against Auburn and played 4 snaps, but he couldn’t comfortably cut off both legs and was sidelined for most of the game — the 2nd in a row he has missed.

“Probably when I was younger I would’ve pushed guys a little more to play,” Kiffin said. “Especially with guys like Braylon that have a very bright NFL future, (we’re) erring on the side of them being safer. Which is probably unique in college football. I just feel I owe it to the players that way.”

Kiffin said earlier this week about the lack of depth at receiver and how challenging it is for the quarterback when receivers don’t know where to line up. That’s disconcerting, to say the least, and is telling in terms of the team’s chances against Texas A&M and Mississippi State if Drummond and Sanders don’t play. Ole Miss will be able to move the ball on Liberty no matter who lines up at receiver, but can the Rebels finish drives in the red zone when the field shrinks and you need someone to make a play? That could be the difference in a 21-point and a 10-point game entering the 3rd quarter. Jahcour Pearson played admirably when Drummond went down last week. He had 7 catches for 135 yards and could serve as a viable No. 1 option in this game — though the Rebels are likely in deep trouble if he is forced to be the No. 1 option beyond this week.

This also puts more of an emphasis on the running game. Ole Miss struggled to run with consistency at Auburn, and that led to a lot of the red zone struggles. Jerrion Ealy had just 3 carries, and Henry Parrish Jr. and Snoop Conner were largely bottled up for most of the night. If Ole Miss is going to grind away a victory and get some guys out of the game and rested, it is going to need to run much better than it did last week.

Ole Miss caught a little bit of a tough break not getting a typical FCS foe in this new trend of the SEC having a built-in November bye week. Instead, this beat-up team is tasked with ensuring that a 1st-round quarterback prospect doesn’t engrave a seismic blemish on an otherwise successful season. This week is an important one for the Rebels, and how they play in the first 20-25 minutes will affect how they are set up to endure their 3 final SEC games. There is still much to play for, and the team’s utmost priority is getting healthy. Saturday is a rare chance in which Ole Miss’ play can aid in getting healthy, even if it’s just a slight boost from not having to play a full 4 quarters with its starters.